Castles in the Air

Graviton has returned, this time with a giant floating island that he has parked overtop of Los Angeles. He issues an statement to the city and the world, telling them that he is forming his own society free from the laws of the ground. He then tantalizes the viewing audience by showing that his subjects — called the Sky Raiders — have all been granted with the ability to fly, a right shared by all of his subjects.[1]

Since Graviton escaped on their watch, the Thunderbolts decide to deal with him now.[2] Hawkeye invited Archangel, who is visiting the team, to tag along with them.[3] Warren agrees to tag along as they could use his help. When Jolt tries to tag along with the rest of the team, Hawkeye tells her that she and Charcoal are staying behind because they have school the next day.[4] He promises her that they will come along on their next mission, but she just started classes and can’t be absent from her education. This gets protests from Hallie, but she appears to comply with his orders.

Soon, the heroes are off and along the way everyone is focused on their own thoughts. While Archangel has decided to give the Thunderbolts the benefit of the doubt, he still isn’t convinced that Hawkeye isn’t somehow being brainwashed and reminds himself to remain vigilant for any sign of deception.[5] Moonstone is thinking about her recent bouts of uncharacteristic heroisms. It all started when she was being held prisoner by the Masters of Evil and decided to stop them after thinking about Deanna Stockbridge, the movie star’s daughter that she grew up with. She wonders if these new feelings stem from the bizarre dreams she has been having recently about a majestic and commanding warrior woman.[6] Atlas is thinking about Man-Killer, who he discovered is tending a local bar after evading capture. He wants to tell his teammates but he feels sorry for her as he knows what it is like being on the run.[7] Songbird, on the other hand, is dealing with conflicting feelings about Hawkeye. This all surrounds his decision to have Mach-1 turn himself in to answer a murder sentence. While she knows Clint is looking out for the team, she also sometimes wants to rip his face off.[8] Hawkeye, on the other hand, is feeling good about the mission and thinks that this proactive approach will help convince the public that the Thunderbolts are going legit.

Meanwhile, Graviton and his subjects have arrived outside of Coit Tower to recruit more people into their society. When the police responds by deploying a SWAT team, Graviton uses his powers to toss them out into orbit. Addressing the crowd below, Graviton then shows that he can give people the power of flight. After executing one of his Sky Raiders for sneaking into his private harem, he also punctuates how he will punish loyalty severely. While this is enough to frighten some people away, enough remain to join up with Graviton’s new society.

Back at Thunderbolts headquarters, Jolt refuses to go back to school. Charcoal tries to convince her to stay and follow Hawkeye’s orders. However, when he sees that he isn’t getting through to her, he decides to hop onto the atomic steed she is riding out to California to catch up with the others. By this time, the Thunderbolts have arrived in San Francisco. Graviton uses his powers to force their Champscraft to land but then leaves them to his minions. While the Sky Raiders can fly, they don’t have the necessary skill to deal with the Thunderbolts or Archangel.

Meanwhile, at a facility in Boulder, Colorado, the Jury finishes their most recent training session with US Agent. Even with their new upgraded armor, the Agent feels that they need improve their teamwork before going out against the Thunderbolts again. That’s when US Agent gets a report about Graviton. He wants to mobilize his team to respond to this threat. However, he is stopped by Edwin Cord, who is financing them who tells them that he is investing in them to deal with the Thunderbolts and nobody else, much to the US Agent’s chagrin.[9]

In San Francisco, Graviton has decided to deal with the Thunderbolts directly. Despite all their skill, their foe proves far too powerful. He unleashes a powerful gravimetric blast just as Jolt and Charcoal arrive on the scene, bowling the pair off their atomic steed. Graviton then takes the unconscious members of the Thunderbolts and Archangel prisoner, leaving only Jolt and Charcoal left to stop him. When Graviton announces that he will be executing his foes, Jolt starts to panic.

Recurring Characters

Thunderbolts (Hawkeye, Moonstone, Songbird, Atlas, Jolt, Charcoal), Archangel, Gravity, US Agent, the Jury (Sentry, Wysper, Ramshot, Bomblast, Firearm), Edwin Cord, Ogre, (in flashback) Ajes’ha

Continuity Notes

1. When reporting on Graviton’s officer to the world, a reporter states that there is no sign of the mutants that have been sighted in the area recently. They are referring to X-Force, who will live in the city from X-Force #80 through 115. It also states that Iron Man is away from Seattle on Avengers business. At the time of this story, Tony Stark had relocated to Seattle in Iron Man (vol. 3) #11. He will live there until issue #47 of that series. The Avengers business at this time was likely when the team was fighting the Wrecking Crew and Doomsday Man in Avengers (vol. 3) #16-18.

2. Graviton was allowed to escape in Thunderbolts #17 when Moonstone used her psychology skills to make him realize that he had no ambition. At the time, Karla figured it was no big deal because he might take up a benign goal.

3. Archangel ended up clashing with the Thunderbolts when he investigated why the Black Widow was shipping an old Champscraft to Colorado. After being convinced the Thunderbolts are trying to turn over a new leaf, Warren accepted an invitation back to their head quarters. This all happened last issue.

4. Hawkeye registered Jolt and Charcoal to attend the local high school last issue. Jolt’s apprehension toward this is due to the fact that it reminds her of her former life before all her friends and family were murdered during the Onslaught incident. See Thunderbolts #33 for the details.

5. The reason why Warren doesn’t trust the Thunderbolts is because they were once villains who posed as heroes until they were outed as seen in Thunderbolts #1-12. The team has been trying to reform and redeem themselves to the public since issue #15. Hawkeye only recently joined on as their new leader to help them in this goal in issue #22, making many wonder if he is being mind controlled. He’s not.

6. Moonstone started having her strange dreams in Thunderbolts #18. She was captive of the Masters of Evil and thought about Stockbridge in issue #25. The dreams are of Kree a warrior named Ajes’ha who wielded the Moonstone centuries before it ended up in Karla’s possession. See Thunderbolts #45-46.

7. Man-Killer was a member of the Masters of Evil that were busted in issue #25. She evaded capture and Erik discovered her new job last issue. He keeps her secret until her cover is blown by Wonder Man in Thunderbolts #42.

8. Back when he was the criminal known as the Beetle in, Abner Jenkins murdered a man in Deadly Foes of Spider-Man #3. When Hawkeye took over as leader of the Thunderbolts he convinced Abe to turn himself in and serve his sentence. He did so in Thunderbolts #23, much to the chagrin of Songbird. Mach-1 and Songbird had been dating since issue #3.

9. The Jury got their start hunting down Venom starting in Venom: Lethal Protector #2. Up until recently, they had been used to going after a single target and ganging up on them. This all changed when US Agent and the Jury were hired by Edwin Cord to take down the Thunderbolts in Thunderbolts #23. Their lack of teamwork and armor vulnerability led to their ultimate downfall.

Topical References

• When the Sky Raiders fail to stop the Thunderbolts, Graviton laments that he chose “bikers, druggies, dreamers, and Highlander fans” as his minions. Highlander is a franchise that features an order of immortals that hunt down and fight each other to the death until there is only one left, beginning with the 1986 film of the same name. It has spawned 4 sequels, an animated film, and 3 television series on top of other ancillary media. At the time this story was published Highlander: The Series and its spin-off Highlander: The Raven (which ran consecutively from 1992 to 1999) were still somewhat popular. This reference should be considered topical.